Book Gendering

There has been a lot of controversey lately around the practice of assigning gender to books.
A petition has been formed to stop publishers from labeling children's books  and publishers have shot back claiming that these books are published because they sell. 

Just a cursory search on the Chapters website brought me to these two gems:

Here's an exciting book packed with facts about nature, ideas for outdoor activities, and fun-to-do crafts projects that will keep boys interested and busy all year around. It's filled with color illustrations and diagrams that teach kids--

• How to recognize different kinds of insects and observe their activities
• How to identify different kinds of rocks
• How to read a topographic map
• How to construct a camper's backpack
• How to tie sailors' knots
• How to build a periscope . . . and much more
  

Girls who take pleasure in crafts activities, and who enjoy the outdoors and nature will love this activity book. It''s packed with color illustrations, things to make and do, and ideas for outdoor activities. Instructions, tips, and information on some of the book''s many topics include--

• How to identify seasonal fruits, vegetables, and herbs
• How to take professional-looking photos and create good-looking photo albums
• How to make paper jewelry
• How to make herbal teas and delicious fruit desserts
• How to dress and pack for hiking and camping activities
• How to construct imaginative musical instruments
• How to weave containers and baskets
  

The more I look at these book descriptions, the more angry I become.  Even putting the stereotypical coloring and design of the covers aside, boys are instructed in Entomology, Geology and Geography while girls are taught Cooking (not "real" cooking, but just tea and desserts so you are prepared for those kids bakesales and tupperware parties that are sure to be a huge part of your future), Jewelry Making and Basket Weaving?  ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!  Would girls not benefit from learning to tie knots or read a map?  Are they destined for a life of reliance on a man to rescue them from bugs?  When preparing for a camping trip should their main concern be FASHION?!  The thing that strikes me the most is that a book on enjoying the outdoors DOESN'T NEED TO BE SEGREGATED BY SEX!  This is completely unnecessary.  Many girls would love to build a periscope and many boys would have fun making an instrument.  Why do these activities have to be clearly separated into "Girl" fun and "Boy" fun.   

This entire issue has actually made me question my own practices.  In my reviews, you may have noticed, I add a list of the bottom of notes for Teachers, Parents or any other readers concerned with content.  This includes my own Age Recommendation as well as notes on Sex, Violence, Inappropriate Language, and Drug Use/Abuse.  It has also, up until now, included Gender.

I assure you, I did have a reason for including such a category.  As a teacher, I often encounter teens that actually do fit with the stereotypes when it comes to their reading.  These action-loving boys and romance-loving girls are often some of the harder students to recommend books to.  Traditionally, the boys are the more difficult group, preferring shorter books with intense, action-packed plots.  They also tend to be the more reluctant reader and leave many teachers and parents searching for something to get them engaged.  I created this category of Gender in an attempt to help teachers and parents reach those particular groups, not as a way to marginalize students into them.

In my own classroom, I have always tried to pair books to students preference based on things like genre, amount of action, amount of romance, setting, type of main character etc.  I have also found many books that seem to transcend any stereotypes and preferences and are loved by almost all of my students - books like The Hunger Games and The False Prince.  But, I will admit, on those rough days or when I am particularly stuck, I do fall back on the standard sports books for boys and romances for girls.   

However, given the fact that this issue has come to the forefront in recent weeks (even though the arguement is usually geared towards children's books) I have started to re-think the way that I have approached gender in reading.

It may very well be that these particular teens have fallen into those groups BECAUSE of book gendering and BECAUSE they were always given "BOY" or "GIRL" books.  With constant reinforcement it is no wonder that these kids come to believe that this is actually the only type of book that they like because it is the only type of book that has been offered. 

It may also be that the reason that I (and other teachers and parents) are placing those books and those students into these narrow categories is due to my own subconscious notions of gender - learned from years of being an active member of a society that does the same.  As humans, we like categories, we like things to fit into neat little boxes and never venture outside, but, as humans, we simply don't fit into one box.  It is time for us, as parents, educators and as human beings, to start opening our minds and allowing and encouraging the youth we encounter to make choices without gender bias.

As such, I will no longer be adding Gender to my book reviews and I will endeavor, within my own classroom, to broaden my own horizons when it comes to recommending books.

Sound Off Sunday - Book Clubs

Sound Off Sunday is a weekly event hosted by Reading Between Classes.  This is your chance to speak your mind.  Each week will feature a new question or topic on which you can share your thoughts.

This week's Sound Off topic is: Book Clubs

How many people have been involved, at one time or another, in a book club? And, how many people have watched the book club devolve into drinking and debauchery (well, maybe not quite to debauchery but at least drinking)?  Book clubs have become the chief dasher of hopes in my life.

I was part of an adult book club a few years ago.  It was the one evening that I escaped the drudgery of motherhood and wifehood and had an evening to myself.  We met every 6 weeks or so and whoever was the host got the honor of choosing the book for that meeting.  The group featured a group of women with varying tastes in genre and writing style, so we got to read pretty different books each weeks.  This went well for about 6 months.  Then things fell apart.  More and more people showed up having not read the book or, worse, did not show up at all.  Eventually, members starting leaving citing that they didn't have time to read.  SERIOUSLY?  You don't have time to read one book in 6 weeks???  If you joined a book club, you must have had some interest in actually reading, and yet, your life is filled with so many other things that you cannot even attempt to read one book in 6 weeks?  

Since it fell apart, I have missed the companionship that the book club provided.  I have attempted to find other book clubs in the area or to find like minded individuals in order to start one of my own, but none have arisen.  Last week, I discovered that a local bookstore which is a favorite of mine, is starting a book club.  I spread the word to my friends - no takers, I shared the link - barely a whisper.  I went to the first meet and greet in which we had planned to choose a book and lo and behold, found myself and one other person.  I was so disappointed.

I realize that reading is a solitary endeavor, but I seriously wish that I could find a way to find those like minded individuals.  The ones that read more than a handful of books a year.  The ones that live their online lives on Goodreads and their favorite book blogs.  The ones that will talk peruse a bookstore for hours and talk about their favorite authors (because the favorite books list is just far too long) ad nauseum.  I know there have got to be other YA readers out there because you are clearing second hand bookstore shelves before I can get to them so where are you?  Why am I the only one who feels passionate enough about my reading that I am willing to pull my behind off the couch once every few weeks in order to talk to real life people about it?

Sound Off Sunday (4)

Sound Off Sunday is a weekly event hosted by Reading Between Classes.  This is your chance to speak your mind.  Each week will feature a new question or topic on which you can share your thoughts.

This week's Sound Off topic is: Do-Not-Read Shelves

If you peruse my books on Goodreads, you will notice that I have two of these shelves.  

The first is No-Due-To-Author-Shenanigans.  If an author mis-treats a reviewer and/or engages in general assholery, I do not want to support them with my hard earned dollars.  That is my right as a consumer.  With a new scandal of authors behaving badly every week, I found this shelf to be a necessity in order to keep track of which authors I wished to avoid.  The list keeps getting longer and longer.  Occasionally, I will get a troll on there telling me that I am hurting the author's reputation and that this is bullying.  To the first point - they did that already, I am simply getting the word out to the miniscule percentage of the internet that actually cares what I think and no, I do not think I am impacting their sales - though I can only wish to one day actually be that important.  To the second point - no, this is not bullying, this is shelving.  I do not review these books, I do not rate these books, I just stick them on a shelf so that I can remember that Suzy Suck A Lot was a total bitch to a reviewer who dared to give her 3/5 stars.  GASP!

The second shelf is No-Due-To-Being-Shit.  This is a special place for all those books that are so crap-tastic that they need their own shelf.  Usually books get placed here because of a myriad of bad reviews (Hush Hush), excerpts that display shitty writing (Fifty Shades of Gray), A premise that is downright insulting (How to Save Your Daughter's Life) or one that simply shouldn't exist (Twilight, True Love and You: Seven Secret Steps to Finding Your Edward or Jacob).  Again, I have trolls tell me that I shouldn't do this - especially since I haven't read the books - but it is my account and my shelf and I can do what I want with it as long as I am acting within Goodreads code of conduct.

Other shelves of note are 

1) Slit-Wrist-Before-Reading-Sequel - just in case I forget how much I HATED the previous book 

2) Am-I-Being-Punked - for those books that are filled with WTFery

3) And of course, Did-Not-Finish - for those books that I simply could not make it through, no matter how much tequila I drank.

Thanks for reading and if you want to share your thoughts on this topic I would love for you to leave your link in the comments! 

Sound Off Sunday (3)

Sound Off Sunday is a weekly event hosted by Reading Between Classes.  This is your chance to speak your mind.  Each week will feature a new question or topic on which you can share your thoughts.

This week's Sound Off topic is: Classics

I, Zabet Reading, am a resolution breaker.  The one and only resolution that I made this year was to read one classic novel a month.  "I am an English Teacher" I told myself.  "It is shameful that there are so many classics I haven't read."  I thought "Hey, one a month is nothing, you read tons of books in a month".  I made it through three.  Pride & Prejudice, The House of Seven Gables and Frankenstein.  Not only did I find each book painfully boring, but they also began to turn me from reading in general.  I am a one book at a time kinda girl but instead of reading, I was doing ANYTHING else.  It was taking me over a week to finish each book and, during that time, I wanted to claw my eyes out in frustration.  

Perhaps I am simply not patient enough for classic novels.  I can appreciate a well written turn of phrase, but I require that it be backed up with a story line that holds my interest.  It seems like each time I pick up a classic novel I end up question WHO exactly, decided to make these novels classics.  And, how many poor teenagers out there are claiming themselves to be non-readers because the required reading for their classes is painfully dull and difficult.  

While I am talking about Classics I can't help but talk about a disturbing (and irritating) trend in YA.  That is, the precocious main character who adores classic novels and spouts Shakespeare like a Lit Major.  COME ON! I was a voracious reader as a teen, I grew up to be a Lit major and an English Teacher but even I didn't read and re-read Jane Austen and dream of a handsome, wealthy but stand-offish young man who would learn to love me in spite of my myriad of unforgivable faults.

I will probably still force myself to read a classic once in a while, at the very least so I can seem intellectual and snobbish when the topic arises.  But, I probably won't enjoy them and I am fairly certain that I will not believe it when someone else tells me that they do.  

Next week's Sound Off Sunday topic will be:  Do Not Read Shelves (on Goodreads, LibraryThing etc)

Sound Off Sunday (2)

Sound Off Sunday is a weekly event hosted by Reading Between Classes.  This is your chance to speak your mind.  Each week will feature a new question or topic on which you can share your thoughts.

This week's Sound Off topic is: Sex in YA

YA is not just for kids anymore.  A growing number of adults are reading the genre (or at least have started to admit that they read it) and, perhaps as a result, some authors are making things a little more racy.  I constantly find myself conflicted on this issue.

On one hand, as a kid I read a lot of YA and a lot of adult novels.  I read about murders, possession, child abuse, creepy ass cyborgs (that one still haunts me) and yes, even sex.  I did not turn into a murderer, I did not play around with ouiji boards, seek out sex offenders or scrutinize every person in my life to see whether or not they were actually breathing (well ok, yes I did, but only for a month or two).  And I did NOT have sex.  I was an adult in college before I took that plunge.  Mostly, because I was raised to believe that a) sex was special and should be shared with someone that you love and b) my mother would kill me if she found out while my father took out the young man with one of his shotguns (take note that it was ONE of the shotguns - there were a lot in my house). 

I don't think reading about teenagers having sex would ever have made me want to do it, but I also don't like how many forms of media mistakenly make real teenagers think that EVERYONE is doing it.  The same goes for drinking and drugs.  Lots of kids don't partake, but if one were to believe many books, tv shows and movies, every teenager on earth has a secret stash full of drugs their parents have never even heard of! I do believe that such saturation will make teenagers think of these activities as more commonplace and therefore, less of a big deal.  I only hope that they are able to discuss the things that they read or view with an adult who will allow for an honest and frank dialogue.

Now comes the other side of the coin.  Ultimately, when I read about sex in YA (especially in a book I was really enjoying) I tend to get disappointed.  Because this means that I cannot put it in my classroom.  Since I teach junior high (ages 12-16), my classroom books are held to a higher standard.  I have to scrutinize them for swear words, illegal activity and sex because you never know what is going to offend a parent.  It makes my job that much more difficult because there are wonderful books that I could recommend, but due to the content, I fear for my job.  This becomes particularly frustrating when the complaining parent does not want their child READING about sex, but allows them to watch shows like Gossip Girl or play violent games like Call of Duty.  I can only assume that the parent in question has never actually viewed these things. 

Ultimately, sex in YA makes my life more difficult.  I might enjoy the book myself and completely understand why the author chose to include the scene.  But, I know that I will then lose out on an opportunity to recommend a great book to my students. 

Can't wait to hear what everyone else thinks on this topic!
Next week's topic will be: Classic Novels.

Sound Off Sunday (1)

Sound Off Sunday is a weekly event hosted by Reading Between Classes.  This is your chance to speak your mind.  Each week will feature a new question or topic on which you can share your thoughts.  This is meant as a jumping off point that you can take in your own direction.  I am going to warn you, these may get ranty and they may get rambly but I kinda started this so I would have a place to do just that.  Feel free to join me by linking below.  This may end up being the blogging equivalent of being last chosen in gym class or eating alone in the cafeteria but *deep breath* here goes nothing:

This week's topic is: Love Triangles

I am so beyond done with love triangles.  They are starting to all feel Twilight-esque to me.  And yes, I know, there were love triangles before Twilight, there will be love triangles well beyond Twilight, but I think the Edward vs Jacob debate rocketed Love Triangles to a whole new level.  People sported Team Edward or Team Jacob t-shirts FFS and what is more surprising than that is that EVERYONE KNEW WHAT THEY WERE TALKING ABOUT!  Whether you read the book or not, you knew exactly what that meant and, if you taught jr high like I did, you heard actual honest-to-goodness DEBATES on the subject.  Personally, I am team Guy Who Almost Hit Bella With A Car.  

But back to the topic at hand.  Love triangles in YA feel selfish to me.  As a young reader I couldn't help but think "I can't find one decent guy to date and this bitch has TWO fighting over her?!"  I also never really trusted the guys motives, I suspected that at least one of them only wanted the heroine because the other guy did and, if he ever got her, would promptly lose interest.  

They are also becoming so commonplace in books and tv shows (Vampire Diaries wasn't satisfied with just having a love triangle, they had to make the guys BROTHERS) that it is almost cliche and is starting to come off as lazy.  Can't seem to write about a relationship where the two characters click on a deep and personal level?  Ok, just throw another dude in the mix and hope nobody notices that there is no emotional connection between ANY of the characters.  

I am also infuriated by the fact that the heroine never picks the guy I want.  How many people know of successful couples who a) met in high school b) fell in love at first sight c) overcame some HUGE obstacle in order to be together?  No one. That's who.  The successful couples are the ones who started as friends first, or have things in common, or are able to communicate on a deep and meaningful level.  And one of the two guys usually has some/all of these traits.  He is the guy who was always quietly there for the heroine.  The one who watched her cry over the bad boy, who dropped everything to be with her when she was upset and held her hair back when she drank too much.  But does that guy ever get picked NOOOOOOOOO.  He gets left behind for Mr.IhaveamotorcycleandaleatherjacketsoImustbeabadass who the heroine KNOWS she shouldn't be with, but goes after anyway.

These love triangles in YA have started to get to a point where it goes on the STOP RIGHT NOW list of words/phrases that I keep for synopsis.  Right up there with "The Next Twilight", "Instant Attraction" and "Feelings that she shouldn't be having for her brother". 

Thank you for joining me on this rant post.  I hope you will sign up with your own Sound Off and join me again next week for a new topic ... which I will come up with ..... eventually.....

Toodles!